Geva re-selected by Deeside and Upper Donside branch

Published:12:33Friday 24 March 2017

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The Deeside and Upper Donside branch of the SNP has nominated Geva Blackett, an existing ward councillor who lives in Braemar, as candidate to contest the Aboyne, Deeside and Upper Donside ward at the local authority elections in May.

Geva hit the ground running as the newly elected SNP councillor for Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside in 2012. Within weeks, she had the director of infrastructure services out in Braemar showing him the mess that was the 1,000-year-old Kindrochit Castle, owned by Aberdeenshire Council, and £200,000 later and the village had a visitor attraction to be proud of.

Stewart Paterson, convener of the SNP branch, said: “I am very happy to announce the branch’s nomination of Geva.

“She has received tremendous support from members and on behalf of the whole branch I wish Geva well.

“We all look forward to working with her over the months ahead to ensure her retaining the seat.”

Geva, a member of the council’s social work and housing committee since 2012, said she had never lost sight of the need for solutions to the affordable housing pressures in her ward.

She added: “No one ever delivers on their own, success is about working together and being a great team.

“Being a councillor is as much about helping communities and individuals deliver the projects and solutions they want, as it is about helping people with their problems and attending formal meetings. I hope to be re-elected so that I can continue that work.”